Agenda item

Report of the Vice Chairman of the Joint City and County Health Scrutiny Committee (Nottinghamshire County Council)

Claire Grainger, Chief Executive of Healthwatch Nottinghamshire, Asiya Jelani, Head of Communications and Engagement at Arriva, and Louise Bettany, Service Delivery Manager at Arriva presented the Healthwatch Renal Patient Transport Review, and highlighted the following points:

(a)  the renal patient transport review report was presented to the Committee in March 2015, prior to publication.  45 interviews had taken place with patients who used the transport service, surveys were completed by both patients and renal staff and patient diaries were collated to contribute to the findings;

(b)  findings from the report demonstrated that Arriva was providing a poor experience patients requiring renal transport;

(c)  eight recommendations were developed and a meeting took place with Arriva and commissioners in April 2015 to discuss the recommendations and actions that would be taken;

(d)  findings were also presented to the NUH Quality Assurance Committee; patients were sent a copy of the report and copies were placed in the renal units.  There was extensive media coverage and Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire Quality Surveillance Group also received the report;

(e)  next steps include updating meetings with Arriva to hear about progress, revisiting renal units in the autumn  to talk to patients about their experiences after changes have been made to the services and a follow up report will be produced;

(f)  A dedicated renal co-ordinator commenced employment on 14 July 2015 and a transport working group was now in place involving NUH staff, community services, commissioners and patient transport staff;

(g)  Arriva have increased their “carry by’ system, with 50% of groups of patients that want to/can travel together doing so;

(h)  Arriva is not a clinical organisation and cannot put in place safeguards to ensure that patients that need special transport requirements are prioritised for journeys home;

(i)  Arriva has reduced its reliance on subcontracted taxi companies. Arriva has undertaken a review of governance arrangements and the service level agreement will be revised. There has also been a re-alignment of patient transport staff rotas;

(j)  The Arriva renal co-ordinator will be responsible for making real time decisions as this person will have a full overview of the renal units;

(k)  Arriva’s standard operating procedures will help to support staff and there will be further training provided for care assistants and planners;

(l)  there is now immediate notification of reduced dialysis treatment and  summaries of weekly activity is submitted (including nil returns) to ensure a much clearer oversight and Arriva have absolute confidence in the this new arrangement;

(m)  dialysis patients are still under the care of the unit whilst awaiting their transport, but the renal co-ordinator will support this care;

Following questions from Councillors, additional information was provided:

(n)  Arriva recognises the support of the Committee, and acknowledges it is on a journey, but Arriva is confident it will provide the correct services;

(o)  Arriva have a specific list of taxi providers that they work with and taxi companies must work to a minimum standard of care and service level agreements are in place. Transport providers throughout the country rely on additional resources to compliment the service they provide.  This flexibility in using other services is required due to peaks in demand for transport;

(p)  the renal co-ordinator is on site between the hours of 11am-7pm to ensure a robust service is in place;

(q)  Arriva have organised staff forums to inform staff of the necessary changes and work is ongoing to convey changes and improvements to patients, carers and NUH staff;

(r)  all volunteers involved in the Healthwatch report were trained, attended orientation sessions and asked patients a list of scripted questions.  All interviews were recorded and transcribed.

RESOLVED to:

(1)  thank Healthwatch Nottingham for its excellent report;

(2)  thank Healthwatch Nottingham and Arriva for their presentations;

(3)  recommend Arriva continue to improve service delivery to renal transport patients in accordance with Healthwatch Nottinghamshire’s recommendations;

(4)  monitor results from the recommendations and receive a further update at a future Committee.